Friday, 15 May 2015

The
police in Lagos have arrested a 19-year-old polytechnic student,
Emmauel Eto, for allegedly operating a fake Facebook account of a former
Governor of Lagos State and the National Leader of the All Progressives
Congress, Bola Tinubu.

Eto was arrested on Saturday, May 9, by operatives of the State Intelligence Bureau of the Lagos State Police Command.

The
police said the suspect was apprehended following a complaint made by
one Idowu Adeyemi that an unknown person, impersonating as Tinubu,
created a Facebook account in same name, and swindled some job seekers.

It
was gathered that Eto allegedly told members of the public, through the
fake Facebook account, that there were available employment
opportunities in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and other
government agencies.

He also allegedly requested that interested
applicants should pay the sum of N26,850, which was employment and
processing charges.

The police said the items recovered from the
suspect were six SIM cards, 13 empty SIM card packs, six photographs of
a white man, and one I-pad.

Speaking with Punch Metro on
Wednesday, Eto, who hails from Oleh in the Isoko South Local Government
Area of Delta State, said it was another student in the polytechnic who
trained him.

He
said, “I am studying Mechanical Engineering at the polytechnic. I am in
my second year. This whole thing started in January 2015. It was a
colleague, Kelvin, who gave me the idea. I don’t know Tinubu and have
not met him. My friend gave me the idea, and it actually worked because
three job seekers paid money into my bank account.

“I
also have phone numbers from the United Kingdom and the United States
of America which I used to communicate with victims. It is just three
persons I have duped so far.”

The Commissioner of Police, Kayode Aderanti, said the command would not fail to bring all criminally minded persons to justice.

He
said, “The command will not rest on its oars to ensure that any crime
committed is punished and the offenders apprehended. The suspect, who
posed as a prominent Nigerian on the Facebook and other social media
platforms, has confessed to the crime and investigation is ongoing.”